Rideo
by Fearless Noodle
Summary: The time James got rejected in the rain, the first time in Godrick's Hollow, and that time Sirius nearly put James in St. Mungo's because he acted like a lunatic. And the laughter. A collection of one-word-inspired Jily one shots - Hogwarts & Post-Hogwarts. Not in chronological order. (Cover Image by the amazing Viria.)
1. Wet

**A/N: Hello, internet! This is the first in a series of Jily (James x Lily) oneshots/drabbles. They are all inspired by one-word prompts which are given to me by my Blind-Type-Thing Software! How does a software give me ideas, you ask? Well, It makes up words from the letters you're currently "learning", and then you practice with them. I write with them instead. Silly me.  
My first ever fanfic, so please no flames! Reviews would mean the world to me!**

**Disclaimer: Oh, and I'm not J.K. Rowling. *pout*. **

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**Wet. **

"So," Sirius asked, trying to maintain a serious face for his friend's sake, "I take it she didn't fall into your arms, kissed you passionately and agreed to finally go out with you?"  
James sighed, then went to sit on his bed - before remembering his person was currently sodden wet, and that - based on experience - sleeping in a damp bed was not very pleasant. He went to the closet instead.  
"I guess I should have known." He said, rummaging for a clean, dry cloak. "Water does flatten my hair, which makes my handsomeness look less... handsome."  
Remus, who up to now was sitting near his bed, reading a (very thick) book, snorted. "I'm sure that's what it was, Prongs."  
James huffed. "It's supposed to be romantic - and not only to wizards with "pure blood status"! You said it was in muggle culture, too!"  
He then turned to the last marauder, who seemed to be half asleep. "Wormtail! back me up here!" He just shook his head and mumbled that he was dead tired and moony was the smartest, anyway, so why won't he ask him?  
"The difference," Remus, having heard Peter's mumbling, said reasonably, "Is that the birds in those movies were usually already in love with said blokes.".  
James looked indignant. "So is Evans!" Upon seeing the rest of the marauders look at him incredulously, he added defensively, "She's just repressing it. But, deep down, it's there!"  
He had finally changed into a warm, non-soaked clothes and was sitting down on his bed - which allowed one Sirius Black, who was lounging in the nearest four-poster, to reach out and smack him. "Prongs!" he shouted. "Look, you know how we'd love it if she succumbed and rode off into the sunset with you - if nothing else, at least it'll stop your blubbering -" (Remus and Peter nodded in agreement) "- but you have to admit, it isn't going to happen anytime soon. "He finished harshly. When James slumped in defeat the werewolf added, in a softer tone: "Maybe someday. But not now. Not fifth year. Right now, what you have to do is to let her go."  
James looked up, trying to smile. "So no more attempts to try to wow her with your incredibly good looks, ask her to Hogsmeade, then kiss her in the rain?"  
"None of these." Said Remus good naturedly.  
_They're wrong. _James thought desperately, while his mates chuckled. _It'll work. Maybe not this time, but perhaps next day, next week, next month. I'm not giving up!_

But somewhere, in a part of himself that James-of-Fifth-Year found quite hard to access (but James-of-Seventh-Year will go to quite often) , he knew they were right.

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**A/N: Slightly angsty, but the next ones are fluffier - and hopefully funnier (and maybe longer).  
Reminder: Reviews = Virtual Cookies. (Blue cookies, if you're from the PJO fandom.)  
**

**Next update **_**should **_**be****sometime next week.**

**Until then,**

**~Fearless Noodle**


	2. Hour(s)

**A/N: And here it is, the second oneshot in Rideo! Shoutout to Invisiblegirl3 for reviewing - thank you so much!**

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**Hour(s).**

He wasn't nervous. Why would he be nervous? He's James Potter, for Merlin's sake, the most confident male in Hogwarts! A Gryffindor! A Marauder! Of course, he wasn't nervous. Pfft.

Except that he was.

"Hey, Prongs?" Remus Lupin said, offhandedly. "You're shivering." James looked down at his hands and found that, indeed, they were trembling. He swallowed.

He was going to ruin everything.

He had waited forever for this day, and he was going to ruin everything.

It had started when they were both were chosen to be head boy and girl, and continued with the tutoring, and how he took her off the pedestal and she did the exact opposite, laughing all while. And then, of course, that wonderful wonderful moment when she finally agreed.

He remembered that day, running to the seventh year boys' dormitory and shutting the door behind him, breathing heavily. The other three had looked at him questioningly. "What happened?" Peter had asked. "You didn't kill her during your patrol or something, right?"

And that was when it really sunk in.

"Merlin." He whispered. "I'm going on a **date **with **Lily Evans.**"

That was before  
168 hours  
or 10080 minutes  
or 604800 seconds

Basically, a week had passed.

And James - Marauder or not - was freaking out.

"Of course I'm shivering, Remus!" He now shouted frantically at his mate. "I'm going to Hogsmeade with the girl of my dreams, and I don't have anything to wear!" (Remus snorted quietly at that).

Sirius thumped him on the back with a determined expression, and declared dramatically, "Never fear, Prongs-y boy. We shall find you some thinge to wear, and you shall look brilliant. One marauder for all, and all marauders for one, or something!"

"Yeah!" said Peter enthusiastically. "It'll be all right, James!"

"I know how to tie a tie," Remus offered.

James smiled a little. "Let's get to work, then."

_~look, a line break!~_

Exactly an hour later, James was pacing near the entrance to the big hall - where he and Lily had agreed to meet - and was muttering to himself. "It's ok, she's going to be here...she won't bail on you...oh, of course she bailed on you, to stupid oaf, why would she want to date you...it's probably a prank...oh merlin, I'm going - Lily!"

"Well, Hullo there." She looked at him, smiling - a genuine smile. _good sign, _James thought. He took in her appearance, and, bloody Merlin, he'd never seen anything that beautiful.

"H-hey. You look amazing." He cursed in his mind. _Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why would you say something like that? _

To his amazement, she blushed and murmured, "Thank you." _What? No insult?_ James was dumbfounded.

She grinned, looking him over. "You don't look so bad, yourself."

She slipped her hand into his, and he felt something warm blossom in his stomach. _Maybe this date won't be such a disaster after all. _In reply, he messed his hair like he always did, but this time it had less of an arrogance to it. He suddenly realised he'd grown up, without noticing. James-of-Fifth-Year didn't go out with Lily Evans because he wasn't ready - and maybe she wasn't ready, either. But in the nearly two thousand hours since then, something had changed in both of them - and for the better.

He beamed at her.

"Well, I try."

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**I'm wondering - should I make those unconnected, or not? (unconnected means that I could, for example, have a couple of first-date-oneshots and such). **

**Hugs,**

**~Fearless Noodle**


	3. Three (Ways it Could Have Started)

**A/N: **

**New chapter, everyone! Hurrah!**

**First of all: Thank you everyone who followed/favorited! Siriusly (pun intended), two favorites for only two chapters, and a review, too? You guys are the best.**

**So, this one is really long. And has lots of POV's - kinda sorta a New Year's Eve present.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Three (ways it could have started).**

**1. Truth or Dare.**

Sirius Black was bored. Dead bored. So bored, life seemed like a meaningless venture through hours and hours of nothing but bleak bored-ness. So bored, if you had looked into Mugwamp's dictionary and searched for the definition of _**Bored**_,you would see a picture of Sirius. (He was quite sure of that.)

So, naturally, he thought of a fantastic solution. "Truth or dare!" He declared, making his three fellow Marauders jump in surprise. "Let's play Truth or Dare!"

He ignored all their whines and general disagreement and ushered them all to sit down in the space between the beds in the dormitory. "Wormtail!" He practically shouted at the frightened boy, "Truth or Dare?"

He considered it. Sirius' bets were always horrific, but who know what he would ask him?

"Truth," He finally decided. "At what age did you stop wetting your bed?" Sirius sounded victorious.  
Remus rolled his eyes, but James, having caught in Sirius' enthusiasm, looked at Peter eagerly. Wormtail, in turn, turned tomato red and mumbled something under his breath. "Sorry, what was that?" Sirius said playfully. Peter turned even redder and talked a little bit louder. The words were still incomprehensible to James an Remus, but Sirius - who was sitting the closest to Peter - apparently understood and nodded, satisfied.

"Your turn."

Peter swallowed. "um... Prongs?"

James smirked. "Dare!"

Peter scratched at his head, trying to come up with a good dare - and, well, failing. He was never the one with the brains, he thought. So he leaned over to Sirius, who looked giddy with ideas. "Make him cook all of us breakfast, go to Dumbledore and ask -" The Marauder started to whisper, but Remus cut him short. "Tell him to ask Lily Evans out," he said, a knowing smile on his face. "Alright..." Peter answered warily. (Sirius was looking at Remus rather angrily.) "I Dare you to ask Lily Evans out!" The rat animagus tried to sound confident.

James smirked. "You're on."

**2. Bet.**

"I am the king of Hogwarts," James announced triumphantly one afternoon.

It was an exceptionally nice day, so the Marauders' decided to enjoy it to the fullest and head to the Hogwarts' grounds to study. Well, Remus studied. He wasn't so sure about the other three.

"No, you're not," Sirius replied absentmindedly, flicking through a magazine. Remus had glimpsed at it and it seemingly was about a muggle vehicle. He did not ask about it; with Sirius, it was only a matter of time till he'll tell you about it.

"Yes, I **am**!" James insisted.

"You are not."

"I am."

"You're not."

This would have continued for hours, had the werewolf not interrupted.  
"James, why would you think you're the king of Hogwarts?" He inquired, half curious and half condescending (James and Sirius were the only ones who made him feel that way. He was pretty sure it wasn't a very good thing).

"Well," James reasoned. "I can do everything! I know all the secret passages," - He started counting on his fingers - "I'm good in all the subjects, and can date absolutely any bird I want!"

Did Remus mention that James was going through his "extremely pompous, big headed pig-ish" phase?

Because, well, if Prongs's ego would have gotten any bigger that what it was at that point, his entire being would explode and all that would be left would be a pair of antlers and small shards of shredded Marauder.

"Any bird?" Peter, who was lying on the grass, joined in, skeptical. "Absolutely anyone?"

"Yep." James smirked. _His over-confidence would get to him one day_, Remus thought.

"Well," Sirius straightened up, smirking as well, "How 'bout Lily Evans?"

**3. Accident.**

They were working together in Potions. He was leaning towards her, grinning from ear to ear.

_That idiot, _Severus thought angrily. _The blumbering idiot. _

He watched as Lily shot him an apologizing smile, looking truly pained to be pared up with Potter.

He smirked a tiny bit.

_It's not like there's any competition, anyway. _He consoled himself, crushing the dried nettles. _She hates him. _

And, indeed, the seemed to be witnessing the beginning of another famous argument.

"It might blow up the cauldron, Stupid!"

"Then why didn't it blow up till now?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because it was **empty**?"

"Let's just go out, alright?"

Severus froze, mortar forgotten.

Did...did James Potter just ask Lily - _his _Lily - out?

By Lily's enraged expression, it seems like he did.

Merlin, he was going to **kill**him.

Lily laughed coldly. (Really, really coldly. She could've frozen dementors with that laugh.) "What an excellent timing, Potter! The warm setting, the wonderful sounds of cauldrons clinging, the delightful audience of Gryffindor _and _Slytherin! That's just brill, right? And yes, that's a no, toe-rag."

She took her bag and left, but Severus's eyes strayed to Potter's figure, wanting to revel in his disappointment. But, for some reason James had an expression he couldn't really place; something like... confusion. James looked bemused.

It didn't make any sense.

_Maybe he didn't mean to ask her on a date? _A small, reasonable voice in Snape's head whipered. _Maybe he just wanted them go outside?_

Well_,_ he thought, his eyes trailing Lily's disappearing figure, it was clear that voice was losing its touch.

**4. How it really started. **

a) She was shouting at him, and James blanked out.

_Her hair looks amazing in the sunlight, _He thought, before shaking his head in slight horror.

Where did that thought come from?

He and Evans had been enemies longer than he could remember. They fought about everything - literally, **everything** (but mostly his pranks) - and then she would call him childish and lazy, and he would fire back that she was a spoil-sport and a prude and, really, what was up with that hair?

He never meant it.

The hair part, you know.

He always thought it was pretty nice. Red wasn't very common among wizarding families - an exception was the Weasley's, an old pureblood family who were all red headed - so it was refreshing.

But "pretty nice" and "refreshing" did not equal to "amazing".

He was pondering this, when her voice came back into focus (_was that even an expression? _he wondered). "- prank. Honestly, Potter."

He blinked. Then he blinked again.

Still beautiful.

Gah.

"I'm... I'm going back to my dorm," He muttered abruptly, turning around and leaving the scene of crime, where the results of The Marauders' latest prank - #56, to be exact - lay, desolated.

He could feel Evans' shocked gaze penetrating his back, but he didn't turn around. He needed to be somewhere without that annoying (distracting) hair of hers.

He had some stuff to figure out.

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**A/N: Because, as much as I love Dare/Bet fics, I also really like the idea it went this way.**

**For those who didn't understand - It's three ways James (not Lily. That's for another time :D) could have first asked Lily out/started to develop feelings for her.**

**Feedback would be AMAZING. **

**P.S. I have a couple of the first stuff I wrote for this fic, but they're short and not as good (I'm getting better! yay!). But it does mean updates will be quicker (reviews help too). **

**What d'you think?**

**Happy 2014,**

**~ Fearless Noodle**


	4. Break

**A/N: **

**Hey, look! Another chapter!**

**I really tried to get this early, thanks to all the positive feedback - Thank you all so much! Shout-outs to _bubblecloudz _for reviewing, and to everyone else who alerted/favorited! - but schoolwork and Frozen fanfics caught up with me.**

**And I AM terribly lazy.**

**P.S. Yes, I finally did her pov.**

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**Break.**

She never liked Quidditch.

She never really liked sports in general, and Quidditch was the sportiest sport she ever encountered.

Complicated rules? Check.

Way too many fans? Check.

The ability to crawl into any normal, everyday conversation? Check. (_What did you have for breakfast? - Waffles, just like the Quidditch match last night!) _

Very, very annoying captain? Double check.

However, Lily did like Gryffindor, so of course she went to the matches, and of course she screamed at the top of her lungs when there was a penalty, and of course cheered when they won (What normal Gryffindor would not do that?).

She was just not as... enthusiastic about it as other people.

This meant that the last couple of days before a match, her conversations usually went something like this:

_Someone: That Ravenclaw is so going to burn his potion. And his cauldron. And maybe the classroom, too. _

_Lily: Seriously? (No pun intended, Sirius! Merlin.)_

_Someone: Sure. You can see how it's going to spill, and then – oh, dang, he caught it before it could set fire to everything. _

_Lily: That was impressive._

_Someone: Yeah, must be those Quidditch reflexes. We better be prepared for the next match which, by the way – _

_Lily: Sigh. _

_Someone: What? _

_Lily: Never mind. Continue with your amazing story._

_Someone: Alright...? So, as I was saying – _

Or:

_Lily: I can't believe he did that. He's such a child!_

_Someone: I know! He is a good Quidditch player, though, and he promised the next match - _

_Lily (mentally): Noooooo._

And so on.

So, on the beginning of the Gryffindor-Slytherin match, Lily was sitting in her seat, talking to one of her mates, when, suddenly -

"Dear Merlin, this is getting rather dangerous! But Potter continues. Avery is getting closer..."

She stood up, trying to get a better look at the Quidditch Stadium. Meanwhile, the Hufflepuff commenter kept going.

"Excellent play by Potter there, but is it going to be -"

And then Lily's world turned upside down.

Potter, the egotistical dunderhead, was making a very risky move, when the Slytherin keeper did something that was maybe even riskier - and decidedly illegal.

She wasn't quite sure what it was, but in involved some leg twisting and ankles and shoving that resulted in the stupid Head Boy falling to the ground way, way too fast.

And then she was pushing roughly past the crowd in order to get to him, because, darnit, if James was hurt -

She ran down the stands. Strands of her reddish hair were flying in the wind, getting into her mouth and her eyes and, Merlin, she really didn't care.

Because James Potter was lying on the ground and his face was the palest she'd ever seen it.

"You're alright!" She shouted at him, kneeling next to his ashen face.

He had to be alright.

"Lily?" He asked weakly. She could see Sirius Black making his way towards them. Uh-oh. No time for small talk, then.

"You. Are. Such. An. **Idiot**," She said through gritted teeth. "What in the name of Merlin's bloody slippers did you think you were doing, James?"

He didn't reply; instead he looked quite...awestruck. _Idiot. _

"Really!" she was getting frustrated. "what if you fell on your head, huh? What if - "

"You called me James," He whispered, interrupting her.

"I...what?" Lily was out of steam.

"James. You called me James." The toerag was severely injured, and his leg was lying at a very odd shape, yet he was wearing a small smile.

In the sight of that small, genuine smile - and those stupidly warm brown eyes staring into hers - all the feelings she's been suppressing these past few months threatened to spill over.

"I...um..."

_Where art thou, thy eloquent vocabulary?_

Of course, Black had chosen the perfectly inappropriate moment to arrive.

"Oy, Prongs! How - "He noticed her, then, and abruptly broke off."Wha - Evans?"

She ignored him, casting one last look at James.

_That's it, _she ordered herself. _Those...feelings are getting out of hand. You are going to have a long, stern chat with those stupid feelings, they'll go away, and he'll go back to being the idiotically dashing, ego-headed Head Boy._

"Take care of that leg." She may have patted it awkwardly. "What's a Quidditch captain with a broken leg worth? You'll have to devote all of your time to patrols with the horrifying Head Girl."

"Can't have that," He murmured.

She turned and left, forcing herself to go back to her confused friends and stop thinking about a specific injured prat.

She'll need her rest; she had a long, stern talk coming up that evening.

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**A/N: Writing Lily is so much fun, though I think I have an idea for a surprise pov .**

**Constructive criticism and stuff would be AWESOME. (And it would also give me motivation for quicker updates).**

**Thanks to my amazing friend Ruthie for proof-reading this (And not telling me I suck)!**

**~Fearless Noodle**


	5. Safety

**A/N: I am so so sorry. **

**I do have an excuse, though; school's been hectic. **

**But still, I know I should have updated. **

**I also know this is really short - It's the first one I ever wrote - but another one should be up in a couple of days.**

**Special thanks to _IceNinja23, bubblecloudz _and everyone else who followed/reviewed this fic!**

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**Safety.**

The door swung shut behind them, blocking the cold autumn air.

"So... this is it, honey." James was standing in the middle of the barren room, forcing a smile on his face, hoping Lily won't notice its' fakeness.

But she did - of course she did; they knew each other for nearly ten years, and had been together for nearly four. After all that, one tends to know those kinds of things.  
"It'll be alright." She said quietly, looking down at the wrapped bundle in her arms. Harry shivered in his sleep, and she was suddenly aware of how fragile he was, how easily his life could end, how _He_ was so close to achieving it last time. She gazed up at James, determination in her eyes. "It **has **to be."

"Well," he said, his smile turning less forced by the minute, "at least we won't have random muggles knocking on our door at half past midnight, right?"

"My cousin is not a **random muggle!**"

"Then why did he not recognize you when you opened the door?"

"I have a lot of cousins, it gets confusing! And I just had a haircut!"

"What does that have to do with anything? "

This continued for a while until Lily shouted, "Alright! I have random cousins, you can turn into a large animal at will, and our baby has a freaky prophesy about him! Let's clean the house!"

For a second, they stared at each other, speechless.

And then they both burst out laughing, sitting on the stone floor, thinking maybe this forced exile won't be so bad.

They had each other. They had Harry. And, maybe, they would be finally safe.

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**A/N: Again, sorry. and no surprise pov this time - though I do have an idea for the tenth chapter... **

**Reviews/critique would be amazing.**

**~Fearless Noodle**


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